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Linkin Park’s exclusive GQ interview

„This band saved my life!“

They still exist: Rock stars living a normal life. Legendary band Linkin Park made music history after the turn of the millennium. Today they look back happy and satisfied on a long journey that would have never worked without real friendship...

They say friendships that last longer than seven years will outlive eternity. Chester Bennington and Mike Shinoda have known each other for more than 17 years now. The core of the legendary six-man-rock-band Linkin Park experienced not only the typical rockstar life during the last decades, but grew to become a family. In the early 2000s they represented the DNA of America’s youth. By now, both of them have become fathers to multiple kids, stepped over the magical 40-year-boundary and safely arrived in everyday family life. Priorities have shifted, but they are still rock stars after all: This May, Linkin Park’s seventh studio album „One More Light“ dropped and reached the top of the Billboard charts once again.

Absolute routine for Shinoda and Bennington. Their debut album „Hybrid Theory“ sold over ten million copies. These are numbers at a dizzy height, matched only by a few acts in history like Aerosmith or Nirvana. Linkin Park are a global brand. Behind the brand there are six best friends, loving each other like day one: „It feels like we've known each other for 17 months, rather than 17 years. This could have been our first album, that’s how motivated we are“, says Shinoda, founding member of the group.

Growing up on the westcoast, he understands pretty early in his life that he is a free thinker with creative talents. He learns to play the piano, then the guitar. He can draw and write. „Once I start to do something, I get obsessed with it. I absolutely lose sleep over the smallest tasks until I get them done.“ His ambition and focus are part of the band’s success from the jump. But there is nothing like a recipe for the kind of success Linkin Park have enjoyed. „It’s really very simple to explain: Making music was our biggest passion, it was nothing more than a hobby. None of us thought we would be able to make a living with it. But twenty years later it would be a lie to say it has not also become a business.“

When Linkin Park released their debut album in 2000, the effects were unpredictable. They rose to become the answer to the questions Millenials were having at that time. Their sound was a symbiosis of furious metal and hip hop’s explosive wordplay. They spoke about inner conflicts, worried by doubts and depression.

The stories they told were taken from their own lives: Bennington, born in Arizona, completed the band in 1999 as the last piece of the puzzle and became their lead vocalist. As a child he was molested, as a teenager he went on to fight for his life against every kind of drug – opiates, cocaine, crystal meth, LSD. He was a wreck. „If I’m being honest, this band saved my life. I never had a family like Linkin Park.“ That’s how grateful Bennington is, who at one point even juggled with suicidal thoughts. „I can’t put my love for these guys in words, it’s so unconditional. The way it should be in an actual family.“